Mini Blinds to Roman Shade!

I needed some blinds for our downstairs family room area and when I found this great tutorial on Pinterest (click here for tutorial) - I knew what my next project would be!

Pottery Barn's version- $250

My Version- about $35 (and there is no sewing involved!!!)

Here is the breakdown:

Mini blinds from Walmart $20 (mine were 48" wide)

Merete Curtains from ikea $25 for a pair, so $12.50 per blind (you can use any kind of fabric though).

$2.50 for ribbon

and Fabric glue (sorry I forgot the price but I found a small bottle at Michael's and went through 2 bottles for all 5 of my shades).

The tutorial covers all the specifics of how to make these shades with any kind of fabric, I just included these photos to show you how I made them using the Ikea "Merete" curtains.  Just lay out the mini blinds on top of the curtain.

Leave a little fabric to wrap around the sides of the mini blind slats and cut the excess fabric away.  Then simply use fabric glue to fold the fabric sides over the back of the mini blind slats.  You also glue each of the slats in place on the fabric - mine are spaced 9" apart.  Make sure you are gluing the front side of the mini blind slats to the back side of the fabric!

I let that dry for a day then flipped the shade over and used fabric glue to add my ribbon trim.  

Finally - hang using the included hardware that comes with your mini blinds.

It took about 1 hour to make one.
So I did a little at a time and finished all five of my shades in a few weeks.

I'm pretty pleased with the results.  

They work great, pretty easy to make, they are cute, and they were cheap!

Love projects like that!

Once again check out the tutorial for complete instructions for how to make these shades.

Completed Gallery Wall

 Every frame is now filled!

For the last frame (below) I simpy used the paint I had on hand and put it "on hand"!
(blue paint- Benjamin Moore "Hale Navy", green spray paint - Rustoleum's "Eden")

I think I'll wait until my baby is one to add his handprint since he has a tendency to ball up his fists!

For more information about my gallery wall click here and here.

New Name!

You may have noticed I have changed the name of the blog and my URL address.  If you go to the old address (casablancatransformation.blogspot.com) you will automatically be redirected to this new address  (amyscasablanca.com).  My hope is this will be easier to remember and not the tongue twister that the previous name was!  Everything else will remain the same!

I never imagined I would ever have this many readers so I didn't put a whole lot of thought into my blog's original name but with all the growth it's time for an update!  I wish to give a BIG Thanks to all of you -for following my blog and all your kind comments and support!

It's Begining to look a lot like.........

I found these cute fake Christmas Trees at Ikea and snagged three.  I also got the white pots there as well.  The trees are $15 and the pots $3.  My bet is these will be out of stock soon- they are so cute!

Snow is falling outside my window and I'm tempted to turn on some Christmas music!

Gallery Wall Progress

I was wishing some of the mats in my Ikea frames weren't white.  I knew I could have a custom mat made in the colors I wanted - but that could be pricey (at least more than the $0 I was willing to spend!).  

My solution - SPRAY PAINT!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 It totally worked!  I just used the mats that were already in the frames and spray painted them the colors I wanted.  I already had some gloss Navy blue spray paint on hand and so used that.  It didn't look good at first - but it just took a few coats to fix that.  When it worked so well, I went and bought some green spray paint (Rustoleum's "eden" in satin) for the Utah state printable.  You can use a satin or gloss finish spray paint - it didn't really seem to make a difference.  Both worked great!

website for free state printables (click here)

Bathroom Sconce Update

I love these lights in our downstairs bathroom but they weren't standing out enough.  The white lights on a white wall just wasn't working for me!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

MUCH BETTER!!!

The reason I hadn't painted them until now was simply that I didn't want to take the lights down.  I finally realized I could paint them in place - so that's what I did.  The Navy blue paint is Benjamin Moore's "Hale Navy" (same as the vanity).

To read more about these lights and the whole bathroom transformation click here and here.

Desk Chair Find

I love a good treasure hunt - especially when you actually find a treasure!  I found this awesome desk chair for my son's room on KSL classifieds (basically like a craigs list in Utah).

I especially loved that I didn't have to do anything to it - I love it AS IS!!!!  

That almost never happens to me!

 It's a great unique piece that is a one of a kind.  I could never have found this in a store and if I had it would have cost significantly more!

This Chair made my Day!!!